Battle between Dutch and Spanish Ships on the Haarlemmermeer, 26 May 1573

In 1629 the town authorities commissioned a painting for their town hall about a defeat more than half a century old. In 1572 their city had joined the revolt against Spain, and Spanish troops laid siege to it. The Haarlemmermeer, then a great inland lake, was the city's main supply route, and on 26 May 1573 the rebel ships tried to win it back. They lost to a fleet of Spanish and Amsterdam ships, because Amsterdam was still loyal to the king, and that July Haarlem surrendered. Vroom fills the whole lake with sails and cannon smoke, with the town and its great church on the horizon. He signed on a flag of one of the ships, VROOM F., and another flag carries a date of which only the first two digits, 16, can be read. The lake itself was drained in the 19th century.